Do you have them too? This one person in your circle of acquaintances ...? The person who tries to convince you of Forró with a thousand reasons? I had it.
But let's start from the beginning: I get to know her in a course at the university. I don't know yet that it would turn my life upside down. When she first told me about Forró, I blocked it. My image of dancing is not exactly positive. I took a dance class at school. However, forgetting everything again and it was never fun for me. So why Forró?
Even if she tries more often for the next 6 months, dancing is not an option for me. That I would later become a dance teacher - unimaginable. The thought of bumping into a strange group and doing something there that I don't feel comfortable with also scares me off.
On a Sunday evening in the fall of 2014, I was sitting on the train home after I lost a soccer game. I am frustrated. She tries to cheer me up on WhatsApp: “I'm going to the Forró now - come over! After that you are in a better mood. " I don't feel like it anymore than the last half year in which she annoyed me with this topic. I'm looking for excuses: "I'm just coming back from a soccer game in a bad mood and I'm in a track suit that is too big."
You: “What's the problem? Come over!"
Me: “The tracksuit? The bad mood ?! "
She: “Everyone is wearing sweatpants here. And you will see, this is cool and you will feel better afterwards! But I have to go now. See you soon!"
To my own surprise, I actually don't get out of the dormitory. In the ugliest sweatpants in the history of sweatpants, I turn up in Hall 3 of the German sports university.
1. The most important thing about Forró is that you feel comfortable.
My first lesson that evening is: Standing by the forró the people in the foreground. In fact, I'm not the only one in sweatpants. Everyone attracts what they are comfortable with. Most of them even dance barefoot.
This also invalidates my second fear: I don't feel comfortable at the thought of moving on the dance floor with (for me) movements that are unnatural. but Forró is not a standard dance and writes for this reason not in detail how to move. So my stiff footballer hip is neither significant nor negative.
2. Forró is authentic.
Not only is it pleasant not to have to put anything on, but it also ensures one authentic atmosphere. Nobody has to pretend. Maybe that's why Forrozeir @ s are like that open minded…
3. Everyone is welcome.
As I stand around lost for the first few minutes, a young woman comes up to me. She wants to know how I ended up here and why I'm not dancing yet. I'm a little baffled by so much openness.
I try to hold on to my skepticism, but I'm drawn to the dance floor. The young woman is not a teacher, she just enjoys forró, she says. She won't let up until I can halfway manage the basic step. It works, even though I'm really not a talented dancer.
4. Forró is not complicated
1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 3. The Basic steps are learned quickly. I am also shown smaller variations. A sense of rhythm cannot be developed overnight - I dance something off the beat - and I know: It doesn't look as relaxed with me as with the others. But it works!
How good you are at Forró with the right training to develop I can't imagine at the time. But I already find it exciting to watch the others dance.
5. Forró is an introvert
Forró works at all not so extroverted like salsa. The dance couples don't seem to be interested in how their dance looks outward, but are totally focused on each other.
That's why there is no competitions, I am learning. Dancing forró is not about looking great. Rather, it's about having the partner the moment to enjoy.
6. Forró makes you happy
When I leave Hall 3 of the German Sport University that evening, I have a grin on your face. I don't know where it came from, but it's just there.
What makes Forró happy is difficult to describe. On this first Forró evening, for me it is perhaps a mixture of the openness of the Forrozeir @ s and the reversal of my prejudices. I should in the years after that, however many other sites discover how Forró makes you happy.
However, everyone experiences these pages differently. These pages finally brought me to spread the Forró luck further. And even though I've been a Forrozeiro for many years and even founded my own dance school; when I'm on my way to a party, the same grin appears on my face as that first day when I went home.
That person changed my life. Not only did I set up my own dance school a few years later, but I've also become more open overall. Towards people and the unknown. I've learned that you have to try something to see the magic in it.
Even if you have doubts and block - maybe you give the person you know a chance ... It could be that she is excited for a reason!
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Responses
I got to know Forró through André (Dedé from Let's Forró Frankfurt). I met him in a salsa class and he was able to convince me of Forró very quickly. At that time he was new to Frankfurt and has since expanded the Forró scene in Frankfurt a lot.
My top 3 reasons for Forró are:
1. Forró makes you happy!
2. Everyone is welcome.
3. Connection when dancing: to the dance partner & to the music
I found out for the first time that Forró even exists in an article in the 2012 newsletter of the Freie Jugendseminar Stuttgart and asked myself whether I would ever be able to dance that. I was always interested in standard and Latin dances, the given dance steps gave me security, but there was really no momentum in them. For me it was nothing more than the sequence of steps and I didn't really feel comfortable with it and certainly not at all free. When I was in the youth seminar shortly afterwards, I got to know Forró myself on the first weekend. And that was very easy! When I got the basic step on it, I was able to dance properly. I didn't need umpteen figures for it to finally look like something. And it already felt like I had always hoped that I would feel like dancing someday: free, capable but also manageable (during the dance lessons in the 9th grade I was always told I let myself be led badly;)). Suddenly I could dance! Since then I have been forróficated !!!
In the meantime I sometimes forget the forró in everyday life. But when I remember him again I suddenly have a lot more energy than before and am motivated to do everything I plan to do.
My top 3 reasons for Forró:
1. Forró is like going -> one step ahead of the other
2. Forró is like riding a bike -> you don't forget it
3. Forró is better than any stimulant -> it releases unimagined energies